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Where do I start - we had a crappy sleep because the hotel room was hot as hell, and there was noise constantly coming through either the window, or through the thin wall/door. Our plan was to wake up and go to the Government Tourist Beareau to ask a few questions about heading South. We started walking and ran into a man that told us how to get there. We headed the direction he told us, but then got told by someone else that it was a different direction. We jumped in a tuk tuk and told him we wanted to go to the GOVERNMENT TOURIST OFFICE- which here are known as TAT (Thailand Authority of Tourism). The tuk tuk dropped us off at an office, and we went in and soon found out it was another one of the f****** travel agencies that claim to be a TAT office but are really there to rip tourists off. We stormed out upset, gave the driver 20 baht and told him this wasn't where we wanted to go ( thinking back now, we shouldn't of paid him), and started walking off. Another driver came up and asked us where
we wanted to go. We told him and he directed us and said it was a 10 min walk away. So off we went to find the REAL TAT office. On the way we stopped to look at our map and we ran into an off duty police officer named Sompong (nickname Sing, he also said that last night was his friends birthday so he spent the night singing away kareoke) who approached us and asked if we needed help. He explained what a real TAT office would look like, he showed us on the map and he said if any tuk tuk or taxi driver takes us else where we were to contact him, as they aren't really allowed to do that. He explained that a lot of drivers take adavantage of tourists to make a buck, as the agencies pay them to take us there. These tourist agencies normally hire unreputable companies, and many things go missing, hotels aren't booked when you arrive etc. He got us a tuk tuk and explained in THAI that he was a police officer and to take us to the REAL TAT office for 20 baht. We thanked him over and over
and off we went. GUESS WHAT - THe stupid idiot took us to ANOTHER NON TAT OFFICE. We walked in and asked if they were a government run TAT office and they said yes. As soon as we sat down, they pulled out a peice of paper to map out an itinerary for us and we knew right away that again it was an office posing. The real TAT office doesn't do itinerarys, doesn't book anything etc, it only gives us advice and information on where to get things for the real price. We left the office, went back to the tuk tuk an said NO, we want the REAL GOVERNMENT OFFICE. So again, we got back in and refused to pay him until he took us. When we got to the real TAT office we said we were going inside to check before we paid him. Sure enough it was the right place. It was a nice building, air conditioned with armed guards outside. The people inside weren't pushy, we could ask anything we wanted, he would look things up on the internet, he had schedules and prices, maps, etc. We were very thankful to finally get there. He
also gave us a wicked map of Thailand. We decided after talking with the guy that we wanted to do a canal tour. He said it should cost about 200 baht a person. We took a taxi to the pier he told us to go too and the first tour company told us 500 baht a person, and when we told him no, the government told us 200 baht he laughed and said go back to the government. We walked away and went to another pier a little bit over. We found a company that charged 150 baht a person ( about 4$) and you can get on and off the boat as many times as you want through out the day. We went and walked through China town. It must of been delivery day as there were TONS of trucks and people with dollys, tuk tuks, running down the tiny aisles. We always see cute kid clothes, and barrettes and other things that make us think of Lexy (our neice) We grabbed a bowl of soup at a stand, walked some more and got back on the boat. We got off at the last stop and walked back to
Koh San Rd. We are now having a drink and relaxing before we have to head to the train station.
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